Through the merits of Christ we are to be purified, refined, redeemed, and given a place with Christ on His throne. Could any greater honor be conferred upon man than this? Could we aspire to anything greater? If we are overcomers, Christ declares, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.”(Revelation 3:5)—The Signs of the Times, June 22, 29, and The Signs of the Times, July 6, 1891.
(Te 283.1)
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“And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”Luke 17:26-30. Now, we know that intemperance is in our world everywhere. There is no sin in eating and drinking to sustain us physically, and in doing that which is for our spiritual good. But when we lose eternity out of our reckoning, and carry these necessary things to excess, that is when the sin comes in. We see on every side such crime, such iniquity. Is it not time that we shall begin to study for ourselves? We have souls to save or souls to lose. God created our first parents and placed them in Paradise. God made only one restriction. “The fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”Genesis 3:3. They would forfeit their life, if they did not obey the restriction.
(Te 283.2)
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Satan is represented by the serpent. The tempter is everywhere, on every side, and when God says ye shall not, what is the result? In many instances in the place of obeying the voice of warning they listen to the tempter. And in the place of all the attractions that Satan presents they have woe and misery. Adam and Eve had everything given that their wants required, but they listened to the tempter and disobeyed God.
(Te 283.3)
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